there's lots of countries that have successful elections. we focus on those where there's a coup or other unsettling events, and we tend to not think about the places where there have been successful elections and good progress made. so all of that says to me that africa, while certainly the home of lots of challenges, is also the home of great opportunity and progress and hope. and i think that we should never forget about that as well. um, as i was mentioning to dr. scott, i've had in the almost two years i've been in command the opportunity to travel quite a bit in africa, and i've been now to 42 of the countries. it's been exciting and exhilarating, tiring at times, to be sure. it's a big place to move about. but one of the things i learned early on, a member of my staff who belongs to the u.s. foreign service gave me a list of african proverbs. he says, hey, you ought to think about these and what these men. and i found one that, to me, i think ideally captures what we at u.s. africom are trying to do. it says simply if you want to go f